The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-10-14

L WOnQef II there can De q pair Oh SHOES
init?"
Little Tim sat on the ground close beside
a very ugly dark-eolored stone-jug. He
eyed it sharply, but, finding it quite i'm
possible to see through its sides, pulled out
the cork and looked anxiously in.
Cant see nothin', but it's so dark in
there I couldn't see if there was anything.
I've a great mind to break the hateful old
thing"
He sat for awhile thinking how badly he
wanted a pair of shoes to wear to the Sun
day school picnic. His mother had prom
ised to wash and mend his clothes, so that
he might 60 looking very neat indeed, but
the old shoes were far past all mending,
and how could he go barefoot?
Then he began counting the chances of
his father being very angry when he should
find his bottle broken. He did not like
the idea of getting a whipping for it, as
was very likely, but how could he resist
the temptation of making sure about those
shoes? The more he thought of them the
AAfChN nv SCuAA u. L opI1IS up aid buub
ed around until he found a good-sized
brickbat, which he flung with sueh a Wig
orous hand and correct aim that the next
moment The old bottle lay in pieces before
his eyes.
How eagerly he bent over them in the
hope of finding, not only what he was so
longing for, but, perhaps, other treasures.
But his poor, little heart sank as he turned
over the fragments with trembling fingers.
Nothing could be found among the broken
bits, wet on the inside with a bad-smelling
liquid.
Tim sat down again, and sobbed as he
had never sobbed before; so hard that he
did not hear a step beside him until a voice
said:
.'Welll what's all this p
He sprang up in great alarm. It was his
father, who always slept late in the morn
ing, and was very seldom awake so early
as this.
"Why broke my bottle ?' be asked.
81 did, said Tim, catching his breath
half in terror and half between his sobs.
''Why did you?f
Tim looked up. The voice did not sound
quite so terrible as he had expected. The
truth was that his father had been touched
at sight Of the forlorn figure, so very small
and so %sorrowful, which had bent over the
broken bottle.
why" he said, Il was lookin' for a
pair Of new shoes. l want a pair of shoes
awful bad to wear to the picnic. All the
other little chaps wear Shoes"
'How came you to think you'd find shoes
in a bottle ?"
why mamma said SO. asked her for
some new shoes, and she said they had
gone into that black bottle, and that lots
of other things had gone into it, too-coats
and hats, and bread and meat and other
things-and ! thought if | broke it I'd find
EN- all, and there amt a thing in it-and
mamma never said what wasn't so before
and thought 'twould be so-sure.r
And Tim, hardly able to sob out the
words, feeling how keenly his trust in his
mothers word had added to his great dis
appointment, sat down again, and CRED
harder than ever.
His father seated himself on a box in the
disorderly yard, and remained quiet for so
long a time that Tim at last looked timidly
up.
"Im real sorry l broke your bottle, faith
er. I'll never do it again"
"No, I guess you won't, he said, laying
a hand on the rough little head as he went
away, leaving Tim overcome with aston
ishment that his father had not been angry
with him.
Two days laser. oil the very evening be-
fore the picnic, he handed Tim a parcel,
telling him to open it.
'sNew shoesl new shoest'' he shouted.
Oh, father, did you get a new bottle? and
were they in it,"
"No, my boy, there isn't going to be a
new bottle. Your mother was right all the
time-the things all went into the bottle;
but, you see, getting them ont is no easy
matter. so I'm a-going to keer them out
after this.'-N. Y. Observer.